Mark Evanier on Steve Ditko, correcting some mythology [News From ME #1; #2]
You don't leave Marvel because of a disagreement over the secret identity of a villain. You leave Marvel because you're getting screwed out of a lot of promised money.

Interview with Ditko from Marvel Main #4 fanzine, October 01968 [hosted at VicSage.com] [via above Evanier]
Ditko strikes Neilalien as the kind of man who, when pointed to a red house and asked what color that house is, would say, "Red on this side."

The Usual Skrullspects [Weekly Crisis] [thanks Joe!]
Is Dr. Strange's uselessness in New Avengers not Bendis depowering him for the story, but because Doc's really a Skrull?

"Marvel Comics has released page previews from the concluding chapters of the 'Endangered Species' story, which will run in Uncanny X-Men #491, X-Factor #24, New X-Men #43 and X-Men #204. In the story, Beast turns to magic (i.e. Doctor Strange) to try to reverse the effects of M-Day." [Comics Continuum] [thanks Sanctum!]

Personal finance blogger uses Quicken to track his comic book addiction [Get Rich Slowly]
Via Consumerist, with many interesting comments about comics from people outside the comics interweb.

"We see the Avengers kind of deal with each other and their trust issues. We get Night Nurse's return to Doctor Strange's life after the events of 'The Oath,' she's his girlfriend now.

The "New Avengers Annual" [in January] will be a big story for Doctor Strange as well. In the Annual, the Sorcerer Supreme will find some of the desperate actions he took during "World War Hulk" coming back to haunt him. "This book will also serve as a huge exclamation point on that part of Doctor Strange's story, as the Hood's gang actually descends on his house," Bendis explained.

"Over in 'New Avengers', on top of all the machinations with the villains; big, life changing emotional events hit more than one character," Bendis said. "So there will be relationship stuff both good and bad and what Doctor Strange is going through is pretty huge."

It's very exciting for Doc fans that he's getting this much attention- but Bendis only taketh and teareth down. When does he ever giveth? (Although he did just give us Night Nurse boobies in New Avengers #34...)

Item: The Cloak of Levitation should not be included in Doctor Strange's astral form!

Above: A panel from Strange Tales #128, by Ditko. This is the first time in the comics record that Doctor Strange goes into astral form after receiving the Cloak of Levitation from the Ancient One.

Above: From Strange Tales #139, by Ditko. Isn't there an elegance, an elegant asymmetry about it?

Above: From Strange Tales #134, by Ditko. It doesn't matter what clothes Doc is wearing at the time. The astral form always looks consistent. It's like his self-concept-ego-image. Neilalien likes that it looks the way Doc did as a novice, as Doc looked when he first learned to leave his body astrally. It keeps Doc humble. If Doc aged, would the astral form stay relatively youthful-looking? Can Doc's self-concept-ego-image change?

Above: From Strange Tales #149, by Bill Everett. This is the first post-Ditko astral form in Strange Tales. Everett keeps the tradition!

Neilalien's argument against including the Cloak:

1. An astral form doesn't need a Cloak of Levitation to help it fly.

2. It dilutes and de-unique-izes the wondrous ability of the Eye of Agamotto. The Eye (and its predecessor Amulet) should be the only item that accompanies Doc in astral form.

Great essay: Why Comic Shops Still Matter, Or At Least Why They Should [Comics Reporter]

Update: More Hallelujah from Neilalien: In Japan, comics are everywhere, and there are still comics shops; shops don't need to go the way of the dodo, but they do need to try a bit harder [Comics212.net]

Jonathan Ross' In Search of Steve Ditko documentary on BBC Four Sunday 16 September [BBC Four]

Why was there no Dr. Strange in the Mystic Arcana story? Cebulski: Obviously, he was in use in places like World War Hulk and New Avengers. Marvel wanted to focus on lesser known magical characters. "There is a larger story," Cebulski added. "There will be a new announcement soon about more in the Marvel magic universe."

Any possible Dr. Strange ongoing? "No plans, you'll see him around other places," Brevoort said. "We like Doc and it's really hard even with a good creative team." Brevoort added that he really liked the "Dr. Strange: The Oath" mini, but that even then the sales were only so-so.

The Timeline includes the complete destruction and near-exact recreation/duplication of the Earth (except for Doctor Strange) by Eternity in Doctor Strange #12-13. Neat! Which reveals Neilalien's second motive for linking this: The Timeline-keeper Lorendiac writes (4th draft), "NOTE: I believe dialogue in a later issue of Doctor Strange either stated or implied that all of the above had been smoke and mirrors and probably never really happened, but I could be wrong and I was not able to find the story I'm thinking of in my collection just now. If I do find it, I'll be sure to include more details in a subsequent Draft of this Timeline."

The terrible truth is: Eternity's destruction and recreation of the Earth was indeed retconned! It was all an illusion by the Ancient One. Let Neilalien's own previous illusions and testings of his readership here fall away...

In Doctor Strange #19, it is revealed that the Ancient One has yet again been testing his disciple. Doc's full acceptance of the horrors he has recently experienced (he's watched everyone die- and now, everyone's a bit like an undead mannequin to/but him, and only he knows it) leads to an offer of "completeness", "finality", and "one with the universe-ness" by/with the Ancient One.

Doc had been sniffing that something was amiss. Of course, he rejects the Ancient One's offer. Doc may give some Zen reason for saying no, but let's be real: he declines because he doesn't want to stop doing the Hoary Hosts of Horizontal with Clea. But by rejecting "the oneness that being the Sorcerer Supreme must lead to", Doc thus rejects being Sorcerer Supreme, and the Ancient One removes the mantle and depowers Doc.

If #19's dialogue leaves a little wiggle-room vague-doubt for the enterprising and hopeful fanboy (like Neilalien) to possibly say that Eternity still did the deed ("illusions" could refer to other things- Doc's "watched", he's been "shown"- it still could mean he was observing things that really happened), the hard-retcon money-shot is in Doctor Strange #20. Here, it is flatly revealed that those vile mystics from the Quadriverse, The Creators, elaborately planned and planted the idea in the Ancient One's mind of testing Doc with "supposed destructions" and "imaginary recreations", so that the Ancient One would give Doc an offer he had to refuse, depower Doc, and make Doc easier pickings!

It's really a shame that Eternity's "recreational" activity was undone (and as another test by the Ancient One- a lame, repetitive out- and it makes the A-One into an A-Hole), because it was an awesome concept that could only happen in a book like Doctor Strange. Of course, the real reason for the retcon is provided in the letters page of #19: Marv Wolfman couldn't undo Steve Englehart's increasingly weird, high-concept and sales-nuking run fast enough! Marv even undid Clea's night of passion with Benjamin Franklin- it was really the evil sorcerer Stygyro (which transforms a cool romantic event into just a damn creepy rape). While Marv's depowering of Doc was needed- Neilalien ultimately finds himself preferring "what could have been" over Marv's tedious superheroic Quadriverse story arc: the continuation of Englehart's exploration of the occult history of America.

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